potion
/ˈpəʊ.ʃən/
"potion" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“potion” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,169 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #19,169
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | potion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpəʊ.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #19,169 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “potion” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for potion is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpəʊ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,169 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for potion, with forms such as "poiton", "potino", and "potionn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "Putin", "Python", "proton", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pocioun, borrowed from Old French pocion, from Latin pōtiō (“a drinking”), pōtiōnis, from pōtāre (“to drink”). Doublet of poison. The correct English form is potion, spelled P-O-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical.
Etymology
From Middle English pocioun, borrowed from Old French pocion, from Latin pōtiō (“a drinking”), pōtiōnis, from pōtāre (“to drink”). Doublet of poison.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: poiton,potino,potionn,potoin,pottion,ppotion,ptoion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of potion - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “potion”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpəʊ.ʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Putin” - see the side-by-side comparison. potion vs Putin
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.